Case Ian Punnett (March 3, 1960 – December 22, 2023) was an American radio broadcaster, author, professor, and ordained Episcopal deacon.
In July 2013, Punnett ended his radio hosting career in order to begin studies for a doctoral degree.
[1] Punnett has a Master of Divinity degree from Columbia Theological Seminary in Atlanta, and has been ordained a Deacon in the Episcopal Church.
[citation needed] Punnett entered the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication at Arizona State University as a Ph.D. student in August 2013.
Punnett received his doctorate from Arizona State in 2017,[2] after writing a dissertation titled "Toward a Theory of True Crime: Forms and Functions of Nonfiction Murder Narratives".
[citation needed] In between his Quad Cities stints, Punnett was also morning man on WMJY in Long Branch, New Jersey.
His replacement for Sunday nights was George Noory who would eventually take over the entire show when Art Bell retired again a few years later.
He always opened the show with the "reminder" to "hostile invading aliens" hovering just beyond Earth's atmosphere to "eat the Canadians first", saying they are "much tastier" than Americans.
[citation needed] Punnett met his wife, Margery, while the two were working at the Daily Illini at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.
[8] The book was inspired by Punnett's discovery during his duties as a chaplain that many religious Americans were uncomfortable expressing anger to clergy or in their prayers.
[9] He was later a faculty member at Kansas State University beginning in 2018, and chief operator of the campus radio station Wildcat 91.9 FM.